B-Line gong show: Inaccessible buses are a serious problem.

I’m a bit ashamed to admit that this hadn’t occurred to me earlier, but the GF pointed out that having every single bus on a route jammed full of people is a real accessibility issue. Suppose you’ve got a kid in a stroller, or you’re in a wheelchair, or you use one of those grocery carts that old folks use all the time. Hell, suppose you’re just 73 years old with a bad knee. Well, no B-Line for you! At least not on Broadway during the morning and afternoon rushes.

If the GF and I wanted to take our niece on a westbound eastbound 99 in the afternoon, we’d have to get on at UBC. If we were even two or three stops into the route, there’d be no way to get a stroller onto the bus. At these stops, the doors open and people get off the bus. Then people waiting at the stop try to jam themselves into whatever space has been left. Whoever can’t jam themselves into the crowd gets left at the stop to try again on the next bus. But there’s no way anyone could jam a stroller, a wheelchair, or a walker into the crush of people on the bus. Or the next bus, or the one after that. The 99 in the morning and afternoon is a bus those people aren’t allowed to take.